gavin6942 The wife (Helen Mirren) of an oafish restaurant owner (Michael Gambon) becomes bored with her husband and considers an affair with a regular patron (Alan Howard).First thing worth noting is the color scheme, with its bright red, blue, green and white. Not just a clever way to indicate what room the action is in, but a great use of the colors themselves. There is the risk that too much color is garish, but not here. Perhaps the best use of color since "Suspiria".Then, you have the bold nudity, not typical in an English-speaking film. Helen Mirren, fully nude for several minutes? And Alan Howard, flopping in the breeze? You bet. But it is not just nudity for nudity's sake. It really shows how vulnerable these folks are.

derekwpaterson This must be one of the worst films i have seen. It rivals Brokeback Mountain as my worst movie experience. Such big hype and terrible, really terrible film. imagine going to the dentist and having a tooth out without any pain relief. That's what watching this film is like. Was with friends who thought it was wonderful i just wanted to leave as soon as possible. It's like being forced to listen to Bob Dylan or the Rolling Stones. Murder, truly murder. If I was ever going to be interrogated, just show me this film and I would admit it straight away. Was fairly young when I saw it but I can still remember how bad it was. Maybe the sign of a good film, if I can remember it that long ago

Red-Barracuda This is easily Peter Greenaway's most famous film. This is despite, or most probably because, of its somewhat notorious reputation. Whatever the case, this has to be the most accessible film in Greenaway's highly inaccessible filmography. Although this is only a fairly relative statement because, despite having a fairly linear story, this is still very idiosyncratic and odd. It also displays the extremely cold tone that typifies this director's work in general. It could best be described as an art-house film with exploitation film subject matter. It contains all manner of unpleasantness, with physical brutality, humiliation, scatology and cannibalism; while it is sexually very frank with much full-frontal nudity and graphic conversations.So it's a very full-on film content-wise but what makes it very unusual is that it is quite uncommon for this type of material to be presented in quite the way it is here. Its visual style is thoroughly eloquent, with the cinematography of Sacha Vierney being particularly notable. Vierney is perhaps most famous for photographing Greenaway's favourite movie, namely Last Year at Marienbad (1961), a key experimental movie that clearly influenced him in many ways. Like that film, this one looks very lush too, with painterly compositions that are captured in widescreen by the carefully constructed tracking shots. The décor and costuming are both carefully considered, the latter are designed by Jean-Paul Gaultier; both give the film its own self-contained world that is very striking. The other key collaborator is composer Michael Nyman, whose soundtrack is again memorable but heavy going at times, with the high-pitched singing being a little hard to take. The actors do good work, although they are playing types as opposed to realistic characters; Michael Gambon certainly is in his element chewing up the scenery in his role as the obnoxious thief and Helen Mirren makes an impression in the tough role of his downtrodden wife.This is a film I like but with reservations. As always, Greenaway's style is very hard to fully embrace. The unpleasant aspects are slightly more sickening in some ways when presented in his deep-frozen style. While I believe that there is seemingly an allegory on Thatcherism in here apparently, I continually fail to detect it myself, so I simply take its events at face value. This isn't such a bad thing, as I do appreciate the self-contained world Greenaway has created and I do like his commitment to visual ideas. It's certainly a real oddity. It goes without saying but this film is categorically not one for everyone. It's easy to see why people hate it. But it will reward those that can take Greenaway's eccentricities.

Ben Larson Michael Gambon (Perfect Strangers, Longitude, Wives and Daughters, The Singing Detective, Dumbledore in the last Harry Potters), the thief in the title, is a pig. He represents all that is wrong with the 1%. He is concerned only with his pleasure and spends his time berating others. We can on;y watch him and hope that he gets his just desserts at some point.His wife, Helen Mirren (The Queen, The Last Station, Gosford Park) is America, a toy of the rich, only to be used and controlled. Mirren is fantastic as always, and transforms after the ultimate indignity to seek her revenge. It is not a satisfactory revenge, as it is much too short, but one that we take pleasure in, as we would take pleasure in those who rape America.Alan Howard (the voice of The Ring in The Lord of the Rings) is the liberal establishment; ineffective against the boorish, gluttonous, murderous 1%. One should note that the liberal NPR could not find it within itself to interview the director. Writer,Director Peter Greenaway is well known for his hatred of the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, and many would find this a criticism of her, but I feel it is much more - a critique of the rich and privileged and ignorant like Bush, Palin, Bachman, et al. If only the left had as much power as it is rumored to have instead of been a paper tiger.